Forum Index > Pacific NW History > Mt. Rainier: The Highest Mountain in the US?
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dhelder
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PostTue Oct 19, 2021 7:23 pm 
I found this old postcard that says Mt Rainier is, at 14,408', the highest mountain in the US. I don't know how old the postcard is. Wikipedia says Mt Rainier is 14,411'. And Mt Whitney has been measured at 14,505' since 1988, but 14,494' or 14,496.811' before 1988. (And Denali is higher than both of them and "in the US" when this postcard was published.) #mildlyinteresting

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Randito
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PostTue Oct 19, 2021 7:41 pm 
Mt Rainier has a prominence of 13,212 feet Mt Whitney has a prominence of 10,079 feet Denali is in Alaska, which only became a US state in 1959.

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Riverside Laker
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PostTue Oct 19, 2021 8:39 pm 
I read that postcards were one cent, except during WWI, until 1951.

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zimmertr
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PostWed Oct 20, 2021 8:15 am 
My favorite pastime is arguing with others about whether or not prominence is more important than elevation. Anyway Rainier is 10x cooler than Whitney and Elbert.

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Riverside Laker
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PostWed Oct 20, 2021 2:02 pm 
Prominence and elevation are but two criteria. How about projection, isolation, visual appeal, and classic status? https://trailcatjim.com/major-peaks-synopsis/ Map: https://trailcatjim.com/major-peaks-map/

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Kim Brown
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PostWed Oct 20, 2021 3:11 pm 
regardless of a few feet here and there, I didn't know anything having to do with Spanaway was ever postcard worthy. Yet here we are.

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Malachai Constant
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PostWed Oct 20, 2021 6:23 pm 
I have postcard that has an Idaho potato big as a flatbed truck and another with a jackalope. doh.gif

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Bowregard
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PostFri Oct 22, 2021 6:36 pm 
I think those go with the "fur bearing trout" postcard I saw when I was a kid (and young enough not to know better)

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yorknl
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PostSat Oct 23, 2021 7:27 pm 
One of my prized possessions - buried in one of the boxes in the closet - is a postcard of Kent. But before you think nothing beats a postcard of Kent, there's more to it: the photo is actually of Centralia. I knew it wasn't Kent when I bought it, but it took years of exhaustive research and travel to solve the mystery. Worth the time and energy, though, as finally knowing which two of Washington's jewels made it onto one five-for-a-dollar art print was an incredible feeling. Take that, Spanaway. Anyway...good on Capt. Vancouver for discovering Mt. Rainier despite all those natives living nearby for ages. Neat trick.

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Gil
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PostSun Oct 31, 2021 10:26 pm 
Randito wrote:
Denali is in Alaska, which only became a US state in 1959.
Of course, Alaska has been part of the United States since 1867, so it qualifies.

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BigBrunyon
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PostSun Oct 31, 2021 11:18 pm 
Rainier's higher than Mt whitney!! Everybody knows. Its just California bias. It's all showbiz. Everybody knows. California showbiz always gotta be the star!!! Thus they cheated on the elevations! Everybody knows rainier is higher. Has to be!

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Randito
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PostMon Nov 01, 2021 6:24 am 
Gil wrote:
Randito wrote:
Denali is in Alaska, which only became a US state in 1959.
Of course, Alaska has been part of the United States since 1867, so it qualifies.
Well if we are counting US territories and using promenance above the base as the criteria, then Mauna Kea is the winner as it rises 30,610 ft above it's base.

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Dick B
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PostMon Nov 01, 2021 11:46 am 
The post card I remember as a kid, was the guy sitting astride a huge gooeyduck, whacking it with a stick. I would go with my dad as he dug the clam on a minus tide at the mouth of Cultus Bay on Whidbey Island.

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Jason Hummel
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PostMon Dec 06, 2021 10:00 am 
This is a bit I wrote up for the Columbia Crest Glacier, as part of a book I'm doing. It's rather raw yet, but I think has your answer. For a time, after E. S. Ingraham incorrectly measured the summit, and the country wasn't yet fully surveyed, the summit was thought to be higher. Columbia Crest Glacier Mount Rainier’s three summits rise like arches on a royal crown, and among the Pacific Northwest’s volcanic court, no other peak overshadows this undisputed queen of the Cascade Mountains. The first names placed upon these peaks were those given to them by Hazard Stevens (1842–1918) and Philemon Beecher Van Trump (1838–1916) in 1870. They first named Peak Success on their ascent and upon reaching the summit plateau they named the other two summits as well. According to a report on their climb by The Washington Standard, “The ridge between them [the summits], on which was deposited the brass plate and canteen [never found], is the highest summit of the mountain. It was named ‘Crater Peak’. The northern peak they named ‘Peak Tah-ho-ma,’ to perpetuate the Indian name of the mountain” (Ascent of Mount Rainier, 1870). Of Stevens’ and Van Trump’s names, only Peak Success was partially retained in today’s version, Point Success. The dissolution of Crater Peak as a name of Mt. Rainier’s highest summit was compounded by its generic roots, being named for the crater it houses. On the other hand, in 1894, E. S. Ingraham [see Ingraham Glacier] and a party of thirteen others, including three women and the largest party to ascend the mountain to that point, anointed the peak with an appropriate, if ultimately undeserved, name. In Ingraham’s own words, he writes of their ascent in an article subtitled Rainier the Highest Peak in America and says that “Almost immediately upon reaching the crater I skirted its rim until the highest point, a crest of snow about 300 feet in diameter, was reached, when I took the reading of my barometer, 15,550 feet at 2 o’clock p.m., July 18. That reading makes Rainier the highest point in the United States, excepting Mount St. Elias.” Ingraham concluded after he returned to his party that “...it was thought that this crest [Crater Peak] should receive an appropriate name. After much discussion, Columbia’s Crest [Columbia Crest], suggested by Mr. Hawkins [F. W. Hawkins], was adopted” (Ingraham, 1894). The fact that Ingraham considered Mt. Rainier to be the highest peak in the Union wasn’t necessarily wrong. At the time Alaska wasn’t a state (so technically St. Elias didn’t count) and America had yet to be fully surveyed. Moreover, Ingraham’s barometric reading was incorrect, adding more than a 1000 vertical feet to the actual height of the mountain, which wasn’t 15,550’, but 14,411’. Where the term Columbia is concerned, its meaning is more nuanced than Crater Peak’s name was. It is a derivative of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), just as America’s name is a derivative of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512). Since countries were often female, why is it America instead of Amerigo, Lady Columbia can be looked at the same way. Before Lady Liberty gained popularity, Lady Columbia was the ‘female personification’ of America. So, in essence, Columbia Crest was “America’s summit’. Sadly, for Washingtonians, Mount Rainier has long since been relegated to the 17th highest point in the country (Filley, 1996, p. 91). While Columbia Crest may no longer be deserved, it still is a symbol that millions of people see whenever the skies are clear. What isn’t seen is equally impressive, too. Beneath the Columbia Crest Glacier are two wonders of nature, both sustained by fumaroles, which warm and melt the surrounding ice. The first is Lake Muriel, a 30x50 lake named after explorer Bill Lokey’s mother. Because it’s only liquid due to rising heat from the crater and not of any great size, it has been debated whether it is a lake at all, but were it considered an actual lake, it would become the highest body of water in the United States, at 14,100’ (Drews, 2002). Leading to Lake Muriel is the second wonder, the steam caves themselves, which honeycomb the summit crater and apparently “contain[s] the world’s largest volcanic ice-cave system” (Zimbelmana, Ryeb, and Landisb, p. 457, 2000). Found within those cave are fallen items of every sort, from climbing gear to the most impressive of these artifacts. In 1990, a Piper 18 crashed into the summit of Mt. Rainier, killing two. Some years later, it would be sighted in the steam caves, partially sticking from the walls, having descended through the glacier (Doughton, 2015). Another story of a plane on the Columbia Crest Glacier occurred in 1951. The Pilot, Lieutenant John W. Hodgkin, was attracted to lofty landing zones. What better destination to satisfy such an urge than Mt. Rainier? With this goal in mind, along with a stroll from the Columbia Crest Glacier to the summit, he set out to accomplish just that, and it would all go according to plan, except that when he returned to his plane and climbed in, it wouldn’t start! With no escape, Hodgkin spent a very cold night in his plane. Thinking that there was no one coming to rescue him, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Meanwhile, a team of climbers had been sent to rescue him. It turns out another pilot had seen his plight and called in a rescue. Only just before his lifesavers arrived, he set his plane facing downhill and pushed off, sans engine and in gravities unrelenting grasp. Of that heart-skipping experience the matter of factly related to the Seattle Times that he “...went down the slope, and just as it [the plane] went over the edge, I caught an updraft and I was flying.” The stunt landed him in hot water publicly, but privately, he got a thumbs up and a pat on the back, because in the end he glided onto a frozen Mowich Lake, landed, repaired his plane and flew on to Spanaway no worse for wear, but richer for the story he’d tell the rest of his life (Bush, 2017). And yet, while humans forsake the summit after a short stay, one creature described by Joseph T. Hazard, made a home of the crater. “Last summer,” he says, “the summit parties found the crater inhabited by a certain chipmunk. In some strange way he had climbed to the summit and had made his home at Register Rock. He always received nuts and raisins and hartack with evident gratitude…” (Hazard, 1920, p.54).

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